House "invites" Rosenstein to testify

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Friday said House GOP leaders have agreed to invite deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to testify in front of Congress.

In a tweet, Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, says that Rosenstein will be invited for a closed door meeting adding that if he fails to show up, we will subpoena him.

Leadership has agreed to call Rod Rosenstein before Congress, for a closed door hearing with our panel investigating, so he can explain his alleged comments on wiring POTUS--as well as other inconsistent statements, Meadows tweeted Friday morning.

ABA asks Senate to delay Kavanaugh vote

The American Bar Association (ABA) on Thursday called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to postpone a vote on Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court until the FBI can investigate accusations of sexual assault against him.

The Senate should stop asking them to rate nominated judges. The organization has now clearly demonstrated both liberal bias and a willingness to allow that bias to intrude on its advice to the Senate.

To kill a mockingbird

I am going to steal Brother Chuck B.s idea and get those who have not watched To Kill a Mockingbird to please do so. Make it a Classic Movie Date with your liberal friends and invite them over for pizza or tofu.

Warning: they will probably hate your ass, tell you it is not the same and call you racist.

They'll do that anyway, but maybe this way they will go home and think it over afterwards.

For once, Flake doesn't flake

I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty. What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence, Flake said.

Hold the vote, seat the man, and build the wall.

UPDATE: I wrote this post after Kavanaugh was voted out of committee. Now Flake is flaking on the full vote. Ugh.

He wants another week of FBI investigation on the "current allegation". This will do nothing beyond offer the Democrats time to trot out even more allegations. When this started, I would have said Ford's allegations are impossible to prove or disprove. However, we have now pretty strongly disproven them. Every witness she named said it did not happen. That's 4 to 1.

A Republican betrayal while you were watching Kavanaugh

Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives, the body closest to the people and the one that is run with a simple majority, for 20 of the past 24 years. Yet theyve done nothing with it. Now, in the waning days of their control of the House, alongside a Republican president, they are spending their time passing dozens of banal suspension bills, agreeing to the liberal lie on the opioid crisis, and passing a budget with priorities on abortion, immigration, and spending that are indistinguishable from anything that would be signed into law by a President Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, or, yes, Michael Avenatti.

Yesterday, the House passed the budget betrayal bill, sending it to the president who, contrary to promises of never again, has agreed to sign it. Yet it wont even be a footnote in the news cycle for most in the conservative media. Frankly, Republicans could give amnesty to every illegal who comes here for the next 50 years and the conservative movement will do nothing to even focus on it for more than three seconds, much less resolve to do anything different.

The bill passed with the support of all but five Democrats in the entire House. Think about that for a moment. We are living in an era when congressional Democrats are so radical they will oppose everything that Trump supports, yet this budget united them all. Just 56 Republicans, less than one-fourth of the caucus, opposed the bill.

I think the take-home here is that more Republicans opposed this than Democrats did, and the Republican House and Republican Senate passed it anyway. Apparently, all the Democrats got what they wanted, and so did most of the elected Republicans. The people who actually deliver the votes not so much.

Read the whole thing to see just how bad this legislation, passed while they were all pretending to fight over Kavanaugh's confirmation, actually is. No wonder Ryan is retiring; this legislation seems intended to make sure his nest has feathers from everyone in it.

Another known wolf

An ongoing inquiry into the March 22, 2017, terror attack near the Houses of Parliament in Westminster has revealed that the UK's MI5 spy service knew about attacker Khalid Masood and his connections to terrorists since 2004. However, an investigation of him had been dropped.

UK authorities now defend their decision to stop the investigation as "appropriate" despite his continued association with a banned organization.

The terror attack killed five and injured nearly 50 more. Masood ran over pedestrians, and then stabbed a police officer to death who was guarding the gates to Parliament's entrance. Masood was shot and killed by police at the scene.

Just moments prior to the attack, Masood sent out a document entitled "Jihad" on WhatsApp that featured a picture on the cover of him standing in front of the Kaaba in Mecca.

Once you identify these terrorists, it is not enough to watch them for a little while and then shrug your shoulders and give up. You have to deport them before they attack.

About that voter fraud that doesn't exist...

On Thursday, federal officials charged a New Jersey woman with promoting a voter bribery scheme. Lizaida Camis allegedly offered Hoboken voters $50 in exchange for applying to receive mail-in ballots, and then casting them in favor of candidates for whom Camis worked.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of New Jersey concluded that Camis brought those applications to voters and then delivered the completed forms to the county clerks office.

Camis went to the voters homes after they received their mail-in ballots, in some cases explicitly instructed them to vote for specific candidates, and then collected the ballots. Camis then told the voters they could pick up a $50 check from the Hoboken office of a company that, per the complaint, purportedly provided payroll services to local campaigns.

It exists, it's just not reported. It's not reported because the media doesn't believe it swings elections. The media doesn't believe it swings elections because it is only prosecuted to the tune of an occasional few hundred votes. It's only prosecuted to the tune of an occasional few hundred votes because it's not a priority with prosecutors unless it becomes too obvious to ignore. And it rarely becomes too obvious to ignore because the media doesn't report it.

The timing does matter

Ive not commented on it. But this is a national embarrassment. And both sides of the debate should be ashamed. For the republicans saying it was 30 years ago. Doesnt matter if it was 5 minutes ago. If it happened it did.

That the event happened (if it happened at all) 30 years ago does in fact matter -- it bears on whether we can prove it happened or not. Memories over that period of time are very unreliable and physical evidence goes missing or changes. Kavanaugh was a minor or young adult at the time and has done a lot of growing up since. If doing stupid shit while young was a disqualifier, Robert O'Rouke would not be running for Senate.

Some things are bad enough that you don't get a pass. Murder is on that list. Forcible rape probably is, too. But horseplay and mild groping at a drunken party as a minor probably shouldn't be. If it had happened last year, it would demonstrate something about Kavanaugh's lack of character in the present. But if it happened at all, it happened so long ago that it has little to say about the man today.

More fake news

CNN and The Hill both spread a bombastic accusation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday, without mentioning that the man who made the accusation has since retracted the claim and apologized for making it.

Catalan retracted the claim shortly afterward and said he made a mistake in leveling the false charge against Kavanaugh. I have recanted because I have made a mistake and apologize for such mistake, the man wrote on Twitter. (RELATED: Man Apologizes For Sexual Assault Claim Against Kavanaugh, Claims He Made A Mistake)

Senator files for injunction over Kavanaugh

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., will seek an injunction in federal court to stop the United States Senate from voting to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Politico reports. Merkley claims that his constitutional duty to advise and consent on nominees is being obstructed by Republican efforts to have Kavanaugh confirmed.

Wow. This is insane. The courts should toss it out as a political question to be resolves by the Senate, but Merkley is undoubtedly hoping he can find a friendly judge to issue an injunction first. That would delay matters. Then the appeals court would overrule the injunction -- more delay. Then it ends up on the Supreme Court... where a 4-4 court will tie, leaving the lower court ruling in place. So Merkley has to win at the appellate level, or maybe appeal straight to the Supreme Court after a favorable lower court ruling. And even if Kavanaugh is confirmed and seated, he might have to recuse from a case like this.

It's insane and the courts should throw it out, but if they don't, it's genius. Evil genius.

Peter Grant warns us about gang rule

He's seen the real thing in Africa, and he sees the warning signs here in major cities. If we don't get a handle on illegal immigration, border control, and the criminal element in certain areas, we're going to end up in a very bad place indeed.

Warning Signs

Within a decade, more than $900 billion in interest payments will be due annually, easily outpacing spending on myriad other programs. Already the fastest-growing major government expense, the cost of interest is on track to hit $390 billion next year, nearly 50 percent more than in 2017, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Funny how the Democrats and the media only want fiscal sanity when a Republican is in office.

Defense Distributed replaces Cody Wilson

Wilson got himself in some legal trouble and tried to flee the country. He has now stepped down as CEO of the company. The lawsuits filed by that company will continue under new management, and financially, they are separate entities (ie, donations to Defense Distributed for their legal costs do not go to Cody Wilson, and vice versa). At least, that's what the new management is telling us.

I agree that the charges against Cody Wilson seem a little too smooth. He was making trouble for people and someone decided to make some trouble back. Note the similarity in what he is charged with to what Assange was charged with that forced Assange into hiding within an embassy... both sex-related, both debateable issues of consent or technicalities rather than anything forcible. Also, both likely enabled by lifestyle choices that left openings. If you're going to get into the national spotlight and make trouble for the Deep State, you've got to be squeaky clean.

I'm not sending money to the conspiracy theorists on this one, but I will subscribe to their free mailing list, to abuse an analogy.

Kavanaugh accusations jump the shark

Creepy porn lawyer Avenatti's client alleging repeated drugging and gang rape by Kavanaugh and his friends. The accusations are ludicrous, requiring his client to see this happen, and continue to go to these parties, and then have it happen to her, and still continue to go to these parties.

Andrew McCarthy explains Rosenstein

A pretty good summary of Rosenstain's thinking, I think. Rosenstein is clearly not a Trump ally and cannot be trusted, but he's also difficult to fire without paying a significant political cost. Immediately after Comey was fired, he was clearly invested in the plan to remove Trump. He may have been being sarcastic when he suggested wearing a wire to record Trump and using the 25th amendment to remove him, but it was sarcasm with a grain of truth. He did appoint a special counsel, with Mueller as the cover-up artist.

He's trying to please both sides (at least, enough to keep his job) and it is simply not possible.

McConnel promises a vote on Kavanaugh

In the meantime, a good and honorable man and his family are receiving death threats. They are the subject of smears. And are facing Senate Democrats who say he has no presumption of innocence because they dont agree with his judicial philosophy. Well, before the week is out, both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford will testify, under oath, before the Judiciary Committee. Chairman Grassley has made sure the facts will be heard. Judge Kavanaugh and the American people deserve nothing less. And I want to make it perfectly clearJudge Kavanaugh will be voted on here on the Senate floor. Up or down, on the Senate floor, this fine nominee to the Supreme Court will receive a vote in this Senate in the near future.

Given that the accusations against him are completely unsubstantiated and apparently baseless, and that multiple claimed witnesses have denied anything of the sort took place, the Senate had damn well better vote to confirm him.

Lying liars who lie

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: At Debate, ORourke Denies Trying to Flee Scene of DWI. Despite witnesses who said he did. ORourke, the son of an El Paso judge, completed a court-ordered diversion program after the arrest and the charge was dropped. He was also arrested in 1995 for breaking and entering over what he called a fence-jumping prank. That charge was also dropped.

The charges were dropped because Robert ("Beto") exercised his "my daddy is a judge" privilege.

It's clear the Democrats are just reaching for any delay they can manage, and their accusers have no evidence and aren't even willing to testify under oath. Te Republicans should stop indulging them and vote Kavanaugh in.

Was Downer recording his conversation with Papadopolous?

Former Australian Ambassador Alexander Downer evaded questions during a recent BBC interview regarding suggestions made by George Papadopoulos that Downer may have been recording his conversations in an effort to spy on the then-Trump campaign volunteer.

If in fact Downer was recording the conversation he had with Papadopolous, the one that has been mentioned as starting (or being one of the things that started) the Russia Collusion witch-hunt, then that claim is bombshell game changer. For one thing it makes it possible to know exactly what Papadopolous said and evaluate whether he actually suggested anything inappropriate to Downer. More importantly, it demonstrates premeditation on Downer's part. All of a sudden, it's not a casual conversation where Papadopolous got drunk and said some things he shouldn't have and Downer reported it like a good diplomat. Instead, it's a deliberate act that sounds more like an attempt at intelligence gathering -- or participating in a setup -- than an act of good citizenship.

It's likely Downer's report about what Papadopolous allegedly told him is under the redacted portions of the FISA warrant application, and possibly also discussed in other portions of the redacted information.

Australia and the UK should brace for the fact that this is going to come out whether they like it or not. Their intelligence agencies, along with ours, tried to swing a Presidential election. There's no longer any denying that.

Lisa Murkowski confuses the issues

Republican Party leaders may be insisting that they will install Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, but Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is offering a blunt warning of her own: Do not prejudge sexual assault allegations against the nominee that will be aired at an extraordinary public hearing on Thursday.

We are now in a place where its not about whether or not Judge Kavanaugh is qualified, Ms. Murkowski, a key swing Republican vote, said in an extended interview in the Capitol Monday night. It is about whether or not a woman who has been a victim at some point in her life is to be believed.

Ugh. Seriously?

It's not about "whether [she] is to be believed". It's about whether he did it, and if he did, is that disqualifying for a Supreme Court justice?

At this point, based on what literally all of the witnesses except the accusers have said, the things they are describing were not done by Brett Kavanaugh and did not happen as described. Maybe something happened, and that's being generous... but it wasn't the nominee who did it. The accusers won't even testify under oath.

But even if it was. Awkward drunken fumbling from 35 years ago, as a minor, past the statute of limitations in any case, and then an absolutely spotless sterling record since? It's not disqualifying.

The Senate will be voting on whether Brett Kavanaugh is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, not whether they believe any particular witness.

More impeachment threats on Rosenstein

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Monday threatened to bring articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if he won't testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee.

Gaetz said on Fox Business Network's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" that Rosenstein needs to testify regarding the bombshell New York Times report that he allegedly discussed wearing a wire to record President Trump.

Gaetz said that he and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) are prepared to bring impeachment articles against Rosenstein if committee leadership won't force him to testify.

The Senate will never vote to remove Rosenstein. The only use impeachment has is to put a historical black mark on his record (which he richly deserves) and to give Trump an official reason to fire him (which, politically, should probably wait until after the election... and in any case, McCabe's memos gave Trump more than enough reason to fire Rosenstein).

It's Aliens

What we are dealing with is the reconstruction of Oumuamuas motion before it encountered our Solar System, and here the backtracking become tangled with the objects trajectory once we actually observed it. Its passage through the system as well as stars it encountered before it reached us all factor into determining its origin.

What the Bailer-Jones teams brings to the table is something missing in earlier attempts to solve the riddle of Oumuamuas home. We learned in June of 2018 that Oumuamuas orbit was not solely the result of gravitational influences, but that a tiny additional acceleration had been added when the object was close to the Sun. That brought comets into the discussion: Was Oumuamua laden with ice that, sufficiently heated, produced gases that accelerated it?

The problem with that idea was that no such outgassing was visible on images of the object, the way it would be with comets imaged close to the Sun. Whatever the source of the exceedingly weak acceleration, though, it had to be factored into any attempt to extrapolate the objects previous trajectory. Bailer-Jones and team manage to do this, offering a more precise idea of the direction from which the object came.

Project Veritas exposes the IRS

Project Veritas has released the fourth story in a series of undercover reports which unmask the Deep State. This report features two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials who candidly discuss the IRSs unfair treatment of conservative non-profit groups. The two officials in the report are Thomas Sheehy, an IRS tax examiner and member of the Austin Democratic Socialists of America in Texas, and Jerry Semasek, an IRS attorney in Washington, DC.